Dec. 2nd – No. 4 Washington – Dawg Pounded

An injured Sefo Liufau completed as many passes to Washington defenders as to his own teammates, with three third quarter interceptions allowing No. 4 Washington to turn a 14-7 halftime lead into a 41-10 rout in the Pac-12 championship game in Santa Clara, California.

The Huskies dominated the line of scrimmage, rushing for 265 yards while holding the ball for 38:34 of game clock. The Colorado offense, averaging 469.9 yards of total offense per game, was held to 163 total yards … with only 45 yards of total offense in the second half.

Sefo Liufau went just 3-for-13 for 16 yards, with three third quarter interceptions setting up 13 Washington points. Liufau left early in the first quarter with an ankle injury, but returned to start the second half. “I didn’t do a good job of preparing us and being able to get us quality drives,” Liufau said. “We really left our defense and everyone else out to dry tonight.”

In 2005, the last time Colorado played for a conference championship, the Buffs traveled to Houston to take on No. 2 Texas. The result was a 70-3 annihilation by Vince Young and the Longhorns, in what proved to be Gary Barnett’s last game as head coach at Colorado.

The 2005 title game loss helped to hurl the program into a ten-year abyss of horrible seasons, with the Buffs emerging just this fall to reclaim their place on the national stage.

So, will the 41-10 defeat at the hands of No. 4 Washington in the Pac-12 championship game similarly sentence the CU program to another horrific decade?